All this year, House Speaker John Boehner has been taking criticism from all quarters.

He is a squish selling out to the Obama administration and the Democrats, many conservatives
charged when he engineered bipartisan (mostly Democratic) approval of higher tax rates on high
earners rather than go over the fiscal cliff.

He is a radical hostage-taking Confederate-sympathizing terrorist, cried Democrats when he led
House Republicans to pass a bill funding the government but defunding Obamacare.

He is irresponsible and obdurate, cried high-minded supporters of a grand bargain including
entitlement reform, because he refused to negotiate with President Barack Obama.

He is a squish selling out — you know the rest — yelled some conservatives last week when he
rallied votes, successfully, for the bipartisan budget agreement hammered out by House budget
chairman Paul Ryan and Senate budget chairwoman Patty Murray.

Undoubtedly, some of these criticisms were sincere. Rational arguments could be made in their
support.

But I would argue that the cumulative result, in terms of budget, spending and tax policy, is
far more favorable for Republicans and conservatives than they had any right to anticipate given
the correlation of political forces after the November 2012 election.

Obama had just become only the 17th man to be re-elected president in 220 years.

Democrats had, against considerable odds and with the incalculably valuable aid of some hapless
Republican nominees, not only held on to their majority in the Senate but had increased it from
53-47 to 55-45.

Boehner’s House Republicans had lost only eight seats. But Republican candidates had actually
won fewer popular votes than Democrats.

In a House where there had been little bipartisanship in recent years, that meant that Boehner
had to rally 218 of the 234 Republican members in order to pass legislation if Democrats were
opposed. A defection by 17 Republicans would cut Boehner’s leverage down toward zero.

And many of these Republicans were of a mind to oppose anything they thought would accommodate
Democrats.

Boehner could not count on favorable press coverage — or even much coverage at all, except when
things went sour. His own gifts do not include the smooth articulateness that goes over well on
television.

Given all that, and taking into account legislation passed, Boehner has had impressive policy
success on budget, spending and tax issues.

He has achieved that, on occasion, by tactical surrender. Former Speaker Dennis Hastert wouldn’t
allow a bill on the floor that wasn’t supported by a majority of Republican members.

Boehner broke the so-called Hastert rule in early January in the fiscal-cliff crisis when he
allowed a mostly Democratic majority to effectively raise tax rates on high earners.

The alternative was raising taxes on everyone. What’s amazing here is that the high-bracket
increases were not enacted until the fifth year of Obama’s presidency.

Two months later, Boehner surprised Obama by accepting the sequester cuts. Democrats thought he
would negotiate to increase defense spending.

But few House Republicans cared enough about defense to agree to Democrats’ demands for tax
increases. Boehner read this mood accurately and extracted from it a major policy success. The
sequester has held discretionary spending far below levels that the Senate and White House
Democrats want.

In October, Boehner reluctantly agreed to a bill funding the government but defunding Obamacare.
Enough Republicans insisted they wouldn’t vote for the former without the latter.

But the speaker was quick to climb down when polls showed Republicans slumping with voters — and
to yield the spotlight to the ragged Obamacare rollout. In the process, he won the trust of most
Republican members.

That trust was essential to passage, Thursday, of the budget bill, which tweaks the sequester,
assuaging appropriators who want more leeway and hawks who want more defense spending.

It institutes some small but probably permanent entitlement cuts and likely rules out another
politically damaging government shutdown.

On policy, it’s hard to see how Boehner could have accomplished more this year. And on politics,
he has positioned his often obstreperous members well for 2014.

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.